Social Justice lesson plans on current events. AHHHHH!!! I looked through a few. Looks like they just have articles and then questions on them. So they'll pick a topic and then amass a number of readings on it and write critical thinking questions.

So rad. One of the lessons is how to teach Freire to 5th graders. I'm in love!

So this site has a survey that students from different countries around the world have taken about citizenship. You can sign up for free as a teacher and there are two different projects. 1. Survey - See what your students think are the most important responsibilities of citizenship and how they compare to students in other places around the world. There is also a reflective essay assignment for students if you like. 2. Memory Bank - Students record stories of civic engagement from around their own neighborhoods and upload them to the site. Currently there are none up. But yours could be the first!

"In early March, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart featured former Supreme Court Justice (and current CMS co-chair) Sandra Day O'Connor discussing the importance of the civic mission of schools. Click to watch the video."

"Written and endorsed by more than 50 scholars and education practitioners, The Civic Mission of Schools report summarizes the status of and need for civic learning in schools, kindergarten through 12th grade. It analyzes trends in American political and civic engagement; identifies promising approaches to educating students for democracy; and offers recommendations to educators, policymakers, government officials and funders."

"The Campaign for the Civic Mission of Schools is a coalition of over forty partner organizations working to improve civic education in America's schools. The Campaign's goal is to increase and improve civic learning in grades K-12 by working for policies that implement the recommendations of the Civic Mission of Schools report. This includes efforts to bring about changes in national, state, and local education policy."

They also have civic lesson plans under resources and a toolkit for advocating for the civic mission of schools which I, personally, think is critically important in this age of education for economy, and such.

Also, you can search previous podcasts to find ones that have to do with your specific lesson. Listening to the Podcasts could be a "Do now" activity or an activity at a station students rotate through.

Daily 1 question civics quiz! These questions are not always about post Constitutional US. Some of the questions that I have seen had to do with Enlightenment thinking, the middle ages, ancient Greece, etc.

The Center for Civic Education is a nonprofit, nonpartisan educational corporation dedicated to promoting an enlightened and responsible citizenry committed to democratic principles and actively engaged in the practice of democracy in the United States and other countries.

. . .

The Center specializes in civic/citizenship education, law-related education, and international educational exchange programs for developing democracies. Programs focus on the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights; American political traditions and institutions at the federal, state, and local levels; constitutionalism; civic participation; and the rights and responsibilities of citizens.

So this may be my favorite organization ever. They have an international branch, a branch in DC and a branch in California. They have a daily civics quiz on the the website and a daily 60 second civics podcast . . . I'm in <3.